Center of Muslim Experience in the United States (CME-US)

Transforming Narratives,

Strengthening Belonging

The Center of Muslim Experience in the US is a unique and original center conducting transformative research about American Muslims and their significant contributions to American society and culture, advancing student success through creative pedagogical developments, and fostering community engagement by bridging inter-community understanding. CME-US draws on ASU's charter of inclusivity, public values, and community impact and the Islamic ethics of justice, equity and respect for difference to advance its mission.

Muslim America: Together, let’s build bridges.

Muslims in the United States

Muslim America?

What does it mean? How is Muslim America connected to or distinguished from American Muslims or Muslims in America? More often than not, Muslim Americans are defined by their ethnonational or racial heritage. A 2017 Pew Research Center study identified seventy-five national groups constituting the 3.45 million American Muslims, with immigrants comprising 58% and 42% as born in the United States, of which about one-fourth are converts. This extreme diversity of cultures and histories as Americans produces something unique: Muslim America. We propose to explore what Muslim America is to create new and conceptual knowledge bringing together the constituent factors: Muslims and America.

Muslims and America

Muslim America is a space for developing a new way of thinking to move beyond the binary narratives of violence and racialization that recognizes the unique diversity of Muslim experiences in the United States and that values the social, economic, and cultural contributions of Muslims. Highlighting the interweaving of the two components—Muslim and America—within a single site of inquiry, will generate a grounded understanding of both the United States, as a vibrant inclusive place, and Muslims, the second largest faith group in the world, catalyzing a new identity based on their experiences in the United States.

Our Work

The Center of Muslim Experience (CME) operates through three interconnected pillars—the Global Muslim Digital Repository (GMDR), the Scholars Hub, and the Public Commons—which are founded on four commitments:

Producing New Narratives: We create tools that educators, journalists, and community leaders use. Our

current work is focused on creating digital timelines of Muslim American history, classroom documentaries, geospatial mapping of Muslim contributions, a literary magazine amplifying Muslim women's voices, and an AI-powered knowledge wiki that makes this scholarship publicly accessible.

Fostering Student Success: CME mentors’ undergraduates and research fellows to produce reports on

various youth-related and public interest issues while building the next generation of scholars in the field. CME faculty advise diverse Muslim student organizations and fostered the creation of the Indian Muslim Student Network.

Building Community Partnerships: From ASU's Muslim Faculty and Staff Association to interfaith

dialogues and partnerships across Arizona and the nation, we build bridges where division is assumed.

Enhancing National Leadership: CME affiliated faculty produce scholarly works that appear in academic

books and journals and are cited by media worldwide. Our faculty deliver keynotes nationally and internationally, positioning CME at the forefront of critical national and global conversations.

How We Work: Three Pillars, One Mission

Drawing inspiration from the ninth century Bayt al-Hikmah, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars worked together across every boundary of faith and discipline, CME organizes its work around three interdependent pillars that together form a living ecosystem of research, scholarship, and public impact.

Pillar One: The Global Muslim Digital Repository

A comprehensive, open-access archive of Muslim American histories, cultures, and experiences that preserves oral narratives, photographs, historical manuscripts, artifacts, and multimedia materials that document Muslim presence and contributions in America and globally. The Repository will be free, multilingual, and designed for universal access. We are focusing on five initial thematic areas for organizing the initial collection: Arches of Knowledge (architecture and community life), Oceans of Ink (education, science, and innovation), Flavors of Wisdom (food culture and wellbeing), Bilal's Calling (freedom and justice), and Echoes of the Silk Road (artistic traditions and creative pursuits). Within five years, CME will develop five major multimedia exhibitions based on this collection and build an AI-enhanced platform, expandable as new materials and themes surface.

Pillar Two: The Scholars Hub

This is the intellectual engine of CME for establishing Muslim American Studies as a vibrant, interdisciplinary, and sustainable field, with the infrastructure necessary for rigorous scholarship and meaningful public impact. By supporting a national and international network of researchers, hosting distinguished senior fellows and early-career postdoctoral fellows in residence, convening annual international academic conferences and workshops, and mentoring the next generation of Muslim American scholars through undergraduate and graduate student apprenticeships, the Hub will produce thought leaders who can shape public understanding and influence policymakers, public intellectuals, and community leaders organizing for justice.

Pillar Three: The Public Commons

This pillar translates the Repository's archives and the Hub's scholarship into the resources that communities, classrooms, newsrooms, and policymakers use. Through documentary films, literary publications, digital exhibitions, social media campaigns, policy briefs, pedagogical tools, public forums, and interfaith dialogues, the Public Commons ensures that knowledge about Muslim life does not remain behind university walls or solely as negative news stories.

Documentation feeds research. Research informs public understanding. Public understanding creates the conditions for a new and truer American narrative. This is not simply a matter of justice. It is a matter of national integrity. A country that cannot see all of its people cannot fully know itself.

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CME-US is founded on strategic partnerships between ASU and the larger Muslim community locally and nationally. Gifts to support the Center for Muslim Experience at Arizona State University are made through the ASU Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

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